45 years of John Coltrane's cultural revolution
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/825/42415
Barry Healy
5 February 2010
In February 1965, John Coltrane released A Love Supreme, still
regarded as a jazz landmark. It broke all contemporary sales records
and opened a door to a new musical era still echoing today
At just 33 minutes, it seems strange today that it should have had
such impact. But it sold over half a million copies (compared with
Coltrane's usual 30,000), which indicates it intersected with an
important cultural moment.
Coltrane's collaborator, Archie Shepp, described jazz as "one of the
most meaningful social, aesthetic contributions to America … it is
antiwar; it is opposed to [the US invasion of] Vietnam; it is for
Cuba; it is for the liberation of all people … Because jazz is a
music itself born out of oppression, born out of the enslavement of
my people."
Coltrane was a leader of the Bebop jazz movement, an
adrenaline-driven style that emerged from 1940s urban clubs serving
Black workers drawn into WWII factories. A Love Supreme went one step
further, incorporating African and Indian modalities, opening up to
Coltrane's later free jazz. In the last track, Coltrane creates a
"musical narration" of a spiritual poem, playing the words through
the saxophone.
Critics hated the record.
Coltrane identified with the anti-racist struggle, writing "Alabama",
for instance, as a tribute to the civil rights movement. A 1960
benefit appearance by him for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee was blocked by authorities.
Coltrane's influence shows up unexpectedly. It can be heard in the
Beatles' 1966 track "Tomorrow Never Knows" and informed the sound of
Australian punk heroes The Laughing Clowns.
Jimi Hendrix emulated Coltrane's "musical narration" with the
electric guitar. And it is clearly in the stance, tone and phrasing
of nearly all of today's young rappers.
Coltrane led a cultural revolution. He articulated the defiant
humanity, spiritual yearning and cultural depth of Black American
workers and created beautiful music that demands a hearing.
.
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